Kansas Speedway notes: Clint Bowyer will cart car buyers around on busy Mother’s Day

Clint Bowyer might be putting his mother, Jana, to work Sunday rather than celebrating Mother’s Day.

Bowyer, an Emporia, Kan., native, runs an annual promotion at his hometown car dealership, offering to take buyers who purchase a car in April on a free ride-along at Kansas Speedway.

He’ll have dozens of people to wheel around Kansas Speedway’s 1.5-mile tri-oval on Sunday as a result.

“I think 40-some,” Bowyer said. “That is awesome. It’s very awesome actually for business; it (stinks) for me personally. That is a lot of ride-alongs. I’m going to need a masseuse afterwards.”

Bowyer, who will drive in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota Tundra 250 on Friday and the Sprint Cup Series Go Bowling 400 on Saturday, doesn’t expect his mom to provide a massage, but she might have some duties during the ride-alongs.

“Hopefully, she can bring her sweating son another water bottle every now and then,” Bowyer said.

Following his father’s footsteps

Now that John Hunter Nemechek has turned 18, he will make his Kansas Speedway debut Friday in the NASCAR truck race.

If he wins, though, it won’t be Nemechek’s first visit to Victory Lane at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

His father, Joe Nemechek, swept races in what’s now called the Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup Series in October 2004 at Kansas Speedway, winning the Cup race from the pole.

John Hunter Nemechek was 7.

“Both times, I was on the playground playing. I do remember that,” said Nemechek, who was barred by NASCAR rules from driving on tracks 1  1/2 miles or longer until his birthday last June. “My mom came and got me and my sister … and, when we came out, she told us we had to go to Victory Lane. I remember standing outside the gate, waiting for them to squirt all the beers over dad and stuff. Then we were able to go in and see him.”

The victory was the elder Nemechek’s last career Cup win.

Mother’s Day race fine for now

Kansas Speedway’s spring race has been in late April or early May for five years now, including the last three times on Mother’s Day weekend.

Rain interrupted the 2014 and 2015 races, but Kansas Speedway president Patrick Warren hopes that won’t be an issue for once.

“This year, it looks like we’re going to have phenomenal weather,” Warren said. “I always worry a little bit, if you’re a fan and you come out and you have a rain-delayed race, are you going to come back? Obviously, that’s a concern for us, but we’re excited that this year we’re going to have great weather.”

Ideally, Kansas Speedway would like its first race to be later in the season, but its current Mother’s Day weekend slot will continue for at least one more season.

“I would love for us to have a night race in June or July,” Warren said. “That would be fantastic, but that’s something that may happen in the future. It’s not on deck right now.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2016 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Kansas Speedway notes: Clint Bowyer will cart car buyers around on busy Mother’s Day."